How my mom was challenged to a fight to meet Yogi Berra

I caught wind in 2008 of Yogi Berra's annual appearance at the stadium named in his honor on the campus of Montclair State University. For the meager price of an $8 ticket to the New Jersey Jackals game, you had the opportunity to meet Berra for an autograph ... if you got there early enough. With show promoters charging upwards of $100 for the same signature in person, I felt it was worth the hour trip from Queens to New Jersey for a few moments with the Yankee legend.

My mother, who also was a big baseball fan, decided to take off from work early that day to come with me. She saw it as her way of supporting her son's endeavors and she was also genuinely excited about the prospect of meeting the Hall of Fame catcher. It wasn't the first ballplayer we've waited in line to meet; during a good chunk of my childhood, she would make an effort to get me to Shea Stadium early for batting practice, or to some local grand opening (and often hang out there with me to the dismay of my sister) so I could get something signed.

I met her at her job around one o'clock and she was delayed a bit from leaving as she had to finish up some last minute odds and ends. We probably left about thirty minutes later than expected and I knew that didn't bode well for our chances, as when it comes to getting to New Jersey during the middle of the day, it seems that travel time grows exponentially in relation to the how late you left after your expected departure.

We made relatively good time, arriving somewhere between two-thirty and three o'clock. With Berra scheduled to sign in the neighborhood of 5:30, I felt that we still had enough lead time to get one of the coveted 300 passes. When we got out of the car, there was a sizable line, so we hurried to the end of it and played the waiting game. While my mom held our spots, I did an informal count starting at the front of the line and after counting 200 people, I felt confident that we would be able to meet Berra.

Our ticket from Yogi Berra Autograph Night in 2008

I brought a folding chair for my then 67-year-old mother and we sat and talked baseball and collecting among the fans near us. The people a few spots behind us drove all the way from Boston to meet Berra. As we got closer to Berra's start time, representatives from the Jackals started walking up the line and giving instructions for the signing. You could feel the anticipation of everyone in the line, as some had started their wait as early as 10AM to get their moment with Yogi.

Just before the Jackals personnel started to give out the autograph vouchers, suddenly the line grew from in front of us. People made their way out of their cars and joined their friends and family members who were waiting in line. Out of the woodwork came wives and small children holding various pieces of memorabilia, each taking up one of the coveted spots in front of us. That 100 person buffer didn't feel so comfortable now four hours after our departure from Queens.

Tension began to build as you heard the people giving out the tickets counting off numbers. A line that was once straight had now become a mass of people wading towards the Jackals employees at different angles, hoping they could get their pass before three hundred. We waited as patiently as we could as we heard calls of, "Two-fifty, two-sixty, two-seventy ..." People began pointing out the line cutters and those that were waiting almost three hours were growing restless.

The count was less than 10 away from 300 when the employees were in reach. There was a lady with some kids that were next to us in line who looked pretty unprepared for the signing. Everyone in line had large photos, artwork, baseballs, and baseball cards, everything one would expect for a player of Berra's magnitude. She and her kids had loose pieces of paper; I don't even think they had one piece of memorabilia.

For some reason just the team employees approached with the last two tickets, that lady wasn't paying attention. My mother, who was closely watching the person with the tickets, walked right up to her and got the last two tickets after identifying that we were together.

Within moments, our elation became everyone else's dismay, including the people we met from Boston, and the lady who was next to us who had a very untimely lapse of concentration. The poor college students that were the Jackals employees began to incur the wrath of the 100 people behind us, while the girl who was next to us in line with the kids grew irate at my mother.

The young lady, who was at least thirty (if not more) years my mother's junior, cursed out my mother for allegedly cutting front of her for the last two tickets, and demanded that we give her one of our tickets because it was the fair thing to do. As much as I am for parity, after that trek, neither of us was going to give up our tickets. We kept our cool, as we had the tickets, but this lady would not relent. She attempted to challenge my mother to a fight, of which I dutifully made sure wasn't going to happen.

The people in line near us, as well as the Jackals employees saw this all unfold, and they quickly got team security to escort this lady and her children out of the park. It was laughable to me that this lady was incensed enough to challenge my sixty-seven year old mother to a fight over an autograph.

Once Berra started signing he was like a machine. Quickly the line in front of us evaporated as we moved into the stadium. As the people in front of us got their autograph, there was a small reward for us in addition to getting Yogi to sign our things. With nobody behind us, Yogi relaxed a little bit and my mother and I each asked him a question about his baseball career. He took the time to answer us both and thank us for coming. We held that experience as close to us as the autographs we acquired on the ride home.

One of the items Yogi signed for us that day

While we were driving back to Queens, my mom turned to me and left me with this gem.

"Nick, one day you will have kids, and you will tell them how your mother waited hours in a line to meet Yogi Berra, and at the same time nearly got in a fight for doing so. Remember that when your kids ask you to do something."

My mom passed away due to lung cancer on September 20, 2014, almost a year prior to Berra's death on Tuesday. While I don't have my own kids to tell the story to now, I felt the timing was appropriate to share it. Maybe she can join the line again to greet him in Heaven and tell him her version of this story.

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Hank Workman recalls the overlooked talents of Yogi Berra

Hank Workman was just a wide-eyed rookie with the New York Yankees when he was called up in September 1950. The University of Southern California star only played two games for the eventual World Series Champions, spending most of his time watching Yankees legends Joe DiMaggio, Johnny Mize, and Phil Rizzuto lead the Yankees to the pennant. Despite being surrounded by those established veterans, the player he was most impressed with was their upstart catcher, Yogi Berra.

The famous catcher was a sportswriter’s dream. His quick and witty takes on life and baseball lightened up the often serious accounts of a long season. For almost seventy years, his famous quotations have endured and transcended the sport. Sadly, there will no more new “Yogi-isms” to add to the lexicon. Berra passed away Tuesday evening in New Jersey at the age of 90.

Standing 5’8” and weighing 190 lbs. in his playing days, Berra didn’t fit the typical physical profile of a major leaguer. Come to think about it, most of what Berra did on the field was atypical. A notorious “bad ball,” hitter, Berra broke all convention when it came to managing the strike zone. If a pitch was anywhere within reach, it was in Berra’s wheelhouse.

Save for nine at-bats with the New York Mets in 1965, Berra spent his 19-year Hall of Fame playing career with the New York Yankees starting in 1946. One of baseball’s most celebrated champions, Berra helped to lead the Yankees to 10 World Series victories in 14 appearances.

Playing alongside the likes of Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle, Berra’s skill and accomplishments were often overshadowed by their iconic status. Yet for those that played with Berra, there was a keen sense of his heightened acumen on the field that truly elevated his abilities.

Hank Workman

Hank Workman was a teammate of Berra’s on the 1950 Yankees. Despite only playing with him for one month that season, Workman gained a tremendous appreciation for the breadth of Berra’s skill set. Speaking with Workman in 2008, he was quick to acknowledge the nuances of Berra’s talents that put him in the upper echelon of baseball royalty.

“That guy was a great ballplayer,” Workman said. “He was built like a middleweight prize fighter. He was very athletic and he had great baseball sense. He always knew what to do and the right base to throw to. He could play third base and outfield; he didn’t that often, but he could. He was one of the best late-inning hitters. Nobody says anything about that. He didn’t have a super high average, but he never struck out much; he swung at everything. He was a guy you wanted up there in the clutch in the late innings. He was a fabulous ballplayer, the best catcher I think.”

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Ken Griffey Jr. recreates 1989 Upper Deck rookie card in hip hop video

Ken Griffey Jr.'s 1989 Upper Deck rookie card remains one of the most iconic baseball cards ever. The first card in Upper Deck's inaugural release, the future Hall of Famer's rookie card skyrocketed to values of over $100 during his first season. Widely collected as the premier Griffey Jr. rookie card to own, it can be found in baseball fan's collections worldwide.

1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr.  / Author's Collection

Seattle based hip-hop artist Macklemore paid tribute to Griffey Jr.'s infamous rookie card by having him recreate the pose (at 1:43) in his new video for, "Downtown," featuring Ryan Lewis, Melle Mel, Kool Moe Dee, and Grandmaster Caz.

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Jake Taylor's Major League advice for Matt Harvey

While Matt Harvey isn't out there tanking games for the New York Mets, there has been quite a buzz about the potential decision spurned on by his agent Scott Boras, and Dr. James Andrews to force the Mets shut him down for the rest of the season when he reaches his 180 inning limit. As the Mets are approaching the playoffs and a potential run at the World Series, you can only wonder if one of the veterans will be pulling him aside in the locker room and giving him a talk ala Jake Taylor did to Roger Dorn in Major League.

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2015 Topps Football celebrates a rich NFL tradition spanning 60 years

Topps is celebrating the 60th anniversary of their NFL partnership with the release of their 2015 football series. With a mix of vivid graphics, a wide range of NFL rosters, and insert cards featuring retired legends, Topps’ 2015 football set is sure to please both the avid football fan and sports card collector.

The base set contains 500 cards, featuring 99 rookies alongside 240 veterans. There is a tremendous focus on the impact of fantasy football reflected in the set. Subsets include cards ranking the Top 60 players in the league, as well as one dedicated solely to Fantasy Studs.

There is a dizzying array of inserts that are sure to keep the avid collector busy. There are four base set parallels: Gold (#2015), BCA Pink (#499), STS Camo (#399), and Platinum (1/1). There are also close to 100 short printed variations that are sure to leave set collectors chasing for quite some time.

Their 60th anniversary insert set delivers a nod to the past, putting both active and retired players on cards designed in the spirit of past issues.

Staying with the theme of honoring their rich NFL tradition, other inserts include Road to Victory (Super Bowl), Past and Present Performers (current stars paired with franchise legends), and All-Time Fantasy Legends (past high-end fantasy sports performers).

The major hits in each hobby box are an autographed or memorabilia card, as well as a stamped vintage buyback card embossed with their 60th anniversary logo. This box drew a Melvin Gordon patch card, as well as a 1980 Topps buyback Jerome Barkum card.

With their 2015 football release, Topps has celebrated their rich tradition with the NFL by giving fans both old and new a product to share and get excited about.

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Jack Clark's transformation from wild moundsman to slugging outfielder

Power defined Jack Clark’s 18-year major league career. Whether he was smashing tape measure home runs or unleashing laser beam throws from right field, Clark flashed impressive tools that made his rookie league manager Art Mazmanian pull him from the pitcher’s mound shortly after the start of his professional career in 1973 with the San Francisco Giants.

Clark with the Giants in the minor leagues

Mazmanian, a former infielder who reached the Triple-A level with the New York Yankees in the 1950s, used the keen eyes he developed from being a part of the talent-rich Yankees organization to change the fortunes of Clark’s career. He only needed to see Clark pitch a few games for his rookie league team in Great Falls, Montana to know that his future was in the outfield, not on the mound.

“I managed Jack Clark as a rookie (in 1973),” Mazmanian said in a 2009 phone interview from his California home. “They started him out as a pitcher. I had him pitch four [sic] games. He went 0-2. I saw him hit it out of our ballpark and it was 350 down each line. I knew what kind of a hitter he was.”

Mazmanian had some inside intelligence on Clark’s exploits from an unlikely source, his daughter. She had seen Clark play in high school and urged her dad to come out and watch.

“He was one of the better high school hitters in our area,” he said. “He played against my daughter’s team, Walnut High for two years. She kept telling me, ‘Dad, you oughta see this guy, he could really hit.’”

Mazmanian with the New York Yankees

Almost immediately, Clark reminded his manager of a Yankees legend that he watched during his formative years in professional baseball. He told Clark that his talents were reminiscent of Joe DiMaggio, but were missing a certain intangible that was inherent in the Yankee Clipper.

“After four games, I called him out, ‘Jack, you are a better hitter than anyone we got here, this is ridiculous. Tomorrow I am going to put you in center field. You remind me of Joe DiMaggio, but you are too lazy to be a center fielder. You are going to play right field in the big leagues someday.’”

Mazmanian’s decision wasn’t without controversy. George Genovese, the legendary scout who signed Clark vehemently disagreed with his manager's position change.

“The scout that signed him got mad at me because he was the one that got me the job at Great Falls. [Genovese] said, ‘Artie, I signed him as a pitcher.’ I said, ‘George, he’s a better hitter than any player that’s here. How many .300 hitters are in the big leagues anymore? And he’s 17 years old.’ I told [Genovese] that he could go back to pitching in instructional ball. Jack fought me on it, he wanted to pitch.”

Clark rewarded his manager’s decision with an extraordinary performance. The 17-year-old newly minted outfielder tore up a heavily collegiate pitching staff in the Pioneer League.

“I put him in center field the next day, and he hit in 17 straight games,” Mazmanian said. “They stopped him and hit in 13 additional straight games. … He [just] missed leading the league in home runs, doubles, RBIs, and total bases.”

Despite Mazmanian’s prediction that Clark would be an elite major league right-fielder, the Giants weren’t sold on that idea. For the next two minor league seasons, he played almost exclusively as a third baseman. His infield experiment ended after he committed a whopping 109 errors in 147 games.

“The next year, they wanted to make a third baseman out of him,” Mazmanian recalled. “I said to my wife, ‘If he plays third base, he’s going to kill someone in the front row of the bleachers in the first base area because he didn’t have a catch-throw.’ He had a strong arm, but not the footwork. And sure enough, they moved him back to the outfield.”

Clark clouted 340 home runs from 1975-1992 while making the All-Star team four times. A veteran minor league manager's instincts opened the door for one of the most feared bats in the National League. He never pitched again after Mazmanian pulled him from the mound, and ironically he played four games in the major leagues at third base and handled all of his chances without an error.

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How Dan Bankhead's MLB debut nearly incited a riot

The pitching mound in Ebbets Field shouldn’t have been a source of angst for Dan Bankhead when Brooklyn Dodgers manager Burt Shotton summoned him from the bullpen on August 26, 1947. The righty hurler had been playing professionally in the Negro Leagues since 1940, had four other brothers who played in the league, and served as a Montford Point Marine during World War II. Yet despite all of the formidable opponents he faced, it was the possibility of a race riot that he feared most if something went wrong on the hill that day.

Bankhead signs autographs before his 8/26/47 debut

“See, here’s what I always heard. Dan was scared to death that he was going to hit a white boy with a pitch,” Buck O’Neil said in Joe Posnanski’s, ‘The Soul of Baseball.’ “He thought there might be some sort of riot if he did it. Dan was from Alabama just like your father. But Satchel became a man of the world. Dan was always from Alabama, you know what I mean? He heard all those people calling him names, making those threats, and he was scared. He’d seen black men get lynched.”

Bankhead's famous windup

Bankhead made history as the first African-American pitcher in major league history on that day in 1947, following his teammate Jackie Robinson in the record books who had broken baseball’s color barrier earlier that season. Pitching in relief of Hal Gregg who gave up six runs and only lasted one inning, Bankhead didn’t fare much better against the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates. He was charged with eight runs in three-and-a-third innings, ending the day with a 21.60 ERA. To his credit Bankhead homered in his only at-bat, but it was an incident that occurred in the top of the fourth inning that almost fulfilled his prophetic fears.

Bankhead's first MLB home run

With the Pirates leading 8-2 with two outs, outfielder Wally Westlake approached the plate. Like Bankhead, Westlake was a 26-year-old rookie and World War II veteran trying to find his place in the game. Westlake hit a home run earlier in the game and looked to add another to his totals. Bankhead wound up and fired off one of his patented fastballs for the first pitch of the at-bat, but as it left his hand, his worst nightmare unraveled before his eyes.

He hit Westlake squarely in the upper arm.

“It was like the fans held their breath waiting for the reaction,” the now 94-year-old Westlake wrote in a 2008 letter. “He was just another dude trying to get me out and I was trying to whack his butt.”

The first game an African-American man pitched in the majors and he hit a white batter. The crowd waited for Westlake’s next move. Was the pitch retaliation for his home run earlier in the game? A split second decision by Westlake to charge the mound or take his walk down to first base would have a significant impact the fate of African-American pitchers in the majors. Fortunately, Westlake chose the latter, with little regard to what the fans expected him to do.

“I think I disappointed the rednecks,” he said.

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How one baseball card pack ignited a writer's quest to discover the afterlife of a major league career

Opening a pack of baseball cards for a child in the 1980s brought feelings of tremendous anticipation not only for the cards that were hidden beneath the sealed wax paper, but also the stale piece of gum that was pressed up against hopefully the worst one in the bunch. For many, those images on the front of each card and the stats on the back were burned into memory after spending hours poring over their contents. Well before the advent of widespread availability through cable television and the internet, these cards were often one's only visions of the players we followed in newspaper box scores. These men stood as heroes to an entire generation, frozen in time due to a picture on a baseball card; however, what happens when that fame melts and the players are left to deal with the closing of their careers at an age when most of their peers are just establishing theirs? 

Author Brad Balukjian cracked open a pack of his favorite 1986 Topps and after sorting out the players, he set out to find the next world for a ballplayer after an entire generation has passed since they ended their career. Engaging in a cross-country trek starting from his home in California, he put over 10,000 miles in seven weeks on his 2002 Honda Accord to meet with and examine the lives of the 14 players in one pack of 1986 Topps baseball cards for a book cleverly entitled “Wax Pack.”

1986 Topps Wax Pack (WaxPackBook.com)

Fast forward thirty years and every statistic that can be measured or imagined exists a mouse click away on the internet. While seemingly every bit of data exists about their effectiveness on the field, for most of the players in the 792 card set, little is written about what happened to them after they put their gloves away and hung up their spikes. The idea for breathing life to the stories of each of the men in this singular pack of baseball cards was spawned from Balukjian and a friend reminiscing about their childhood.

“One of my best friends and I were talking about growing up in that era and how we really felt like some of the best stories could be told from some of the players who were not superstars,” Balukjian said during a July 2015 stop in Brooklyn. “These guys maybe have not been asked as often about their careers and their lives. We started to think about what would be a project that would allow us to start to explore those stories from those guys who were not the superstars. I had the idea that what was really fun about buying a pack of baseball cards as a kid was the random factor, you don’t know what you’re going to get in the pack.”

After opening a few packs to get one with a mix of players that were attainable to reach, Balukjian settled on a collection that included 14 players and one checklist. Once he had his pack laid out in front of him, he decided how he was going to string together this group who all shared one thing in common, their presence on the eerily familiar black bordered 1986 Topps baseball card.

“Being a random selection of players, most of the guys are not going to be the superstars,” he said. “I thought there are 15 cards in a pack, 15 chapters in a book, it sort of lends itself to that format to make a book about that single pack. Initially we talked about doing a book pack about the 1985 season told from the varying perspectives of whatever 15 players we got in the pack. As we tried to figure out how to do that, it got a little bit difficult because there might not be a cohesive narrative from 15 random guys, so we decided it would be better to focus on the journey of trying to track down the 15 guys in the pack, telling the story of the journey, and each of the individual players.”

Now that Balukjian had a plan, he set out to track down the men in his pack of baseball cards. They ranged from the highly recognized (Carlton Fisk and Doc Gooden), to the controversial (Vince Coleman), to the relative unknown (Jaime Cocanower). Spread out across the country, the author filled his summer with appointments stretched out from coast to coast.

“Most guys were pretty receptive,” he said. “Garry Templeton and Steve Yeager both were guys that on the first phone call, they seemed like they would cooperative. They may not have fully understood the project, but when I said, ‘Hey I’m going to be in your town on this date,’ they said, ‘I could do that.’ With a couple of exceptions, most of the guys were pretty easy to work with.”

Garry Templeton with the Wax Pack / (WaxPackBook.com)

Of course the story wouldn’t be so interesting if all of the players fell in line. It turned out that the highest profile players in Balukjian’s pack turned out to be the most elusive. Using tactics that could serve him well as a private investigator, he turned to covert methods to try to track down the likes of Fisk and Coleman, which he kept running tabs of in his blog.

“In a way those failures makes the book better,” he said. “I think it is better that I don’t get all 14 players. The story of sneaking my way into an exclusive golf course in Sarasota, Florida to try to ambush Carlton Fisk after he plays a round of golf is going to be really fun. Tracking down Vince Coleman’s childhood home, his high school in Jacksonville, and the story of how he told me basically to ‘f-off,’ those stories would be kind of more fun — the quest aspect.” 

As close as the author would get to Fisk in Cooperstown (WaxPackBook.com)

As Balukjian continued to survey the players in his pack of baseball cards while spending endless hours on the road counting off whether Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts had a grip on each locale, he found a consistent theme with each of the retired athletes. They no longer basked in their glory days the way fans romanticize their on-field accomplishments.

“There is a disconnect between the fans’ enthusiasm for some of the stuff in baseball history and the players that were actually part of that history,” he noted. “As fans we tend to glorify and get really enthusiastic about our memories. The guys that actually lived through that stuff, even the really positive moments, I found a lot of the guys kind of had the attitude of being not too excited to talk about or relive those moments. 

“I think there are a couple of reasons why that may be. It may be painful; relieving those glory days is a reminder to them that they will never be that athlete again. You are dredging up a lot of feelings and memories about a time when their entire lives were dedicated to achieving this goal. Once you are past your prime, you know you will never win another World Series or hit another home run. It could be kind of painful to have to talk about that.”

Many of the players had difficulty replacing the highly regimented major league baseball player's schedule and the adulation that comes with playing in front of 30,000 fans every night. Their struggles transitioning to a regular civilian caused problems in many facets of their lives, including their relationships and what vices they sought to cope.

“It was hard for all of them,” he said. “It’s no coincidence that some major life changes happened in those years right after they retired. Some guys started drinking, some guys got divorced, and some tried some other professions where they didn’t catch on. I think they all had a hard time letting go of playing. Even if they were going into coaching, Randy Ready said something like, ‘Putting the player inside to bed, letting that person go is a very hard thing to do.’ They all spoke to the competitive nature they needed to have to get to the major leagues, and how hard it is to know that you’ll never be able to do that again.”

This isn’t to say that all of these men are disgruntled ex-athletes, rather Balukjian’s odyssey revealed how human these ballplayers are. While most only get to know them from their baseball cards and television highlights, he was fortunate enough to be able to engage them in some deep conversations that had nothing to do with stepping in between the lines.

“A lot of the time we haven’t talked about baseball directly,” he said. “It’s been about relationships — really candid, really powerful and emotional stuff about relationships with their fathers, relationships with their kids, with spouses, and the game itself. Some stuff that comes up has been very traumatic that they’ve talked about.” 

These deeply guarded layers are ones that he intends to reveal in his book. He hoped that by peeling back the curtain on their lives, he will appeal to a group wider than just baseball fans.

“I’m more interested in understanding these guys as people and men,” he stated. “I’m less interested in asking about their favorite memory in their baseball career was or how they felt when they won the World Series; they’ve been asked that a million times. I’m more interested in what they did the day after they retired, or how did being on the road for all those years affected their marriages — things of broader interest than baseball.”

One such player that he connected with beyond balls and strikes was former Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Don Carman, who was Balukjian’s favorite player growing up. Carman is now a sports psychologist that works for super agent Scott Boras, whose clientele includes New York Mets ace Matt Harvey.

“I felt like after spending a couple of days with him, it sounds cheesy, but it almost was like I was meant to have him as a favorite player,” he said. “Getting to know him personally I really identified with who he is as a person. He told me a lot of stories about growing up in Western Oklahoma in a difficult family situation. He said his dad never spoke to him directly ever. His dad died of a heart attack when he was 15, so there’s a lot of pain there. I couldn’t relate to that because I had a good relationship with my dad, but Don described sort of being sort of an outside as a kid, always being a little bit different. That’s something I could relate to. When you make these human connections with a guy that was literally my idol as a kid, it is a really unique thing. It’s no longer, ‘I’m a fan and he’s my favorite player,’ it’s sort of a relationship between two people.”

Balukjian with Don Carman (r.) / (WaxPackBook.com)

At 34 years old, Balukjian is about the same age as when many of his subjects ended their professional baseball careers. This journey allowed him to examine many questions about his own life, taking bits of wisdom from each interview to help him gain perspective on his own direction.

“Frankly, it’s not even about baseball,” he said. “Really it’s a story about growing up. I am now the age these guys were when these guys had to retire and stop playing the game for a living. I’m a single guy, 34, no kids, nowhere near married. I’m sort of facing my own questions in life; do I need to grow up? I always bucked against the trend of getting married, settling down, and doing the traditional thing career wise. This book is giving me an opportunity to think out loud about myself and also learn from the lives of 14 other men that had to grow up themselves when they could no longer play baseball.”

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Doc Daugherty, 87, former Detroit Tiger and World War II veteran

Harold “Doc” Daugherty went down swinging in his first major league at-bat. He waited patiently for Detroit Tigers manager Red Rolfe to give him an opportunity for redemption; however, that chance never came. He joined a handful of major leaguers whose careers lasted one fleeting day.

Daugherty passed away August 15, 2015 in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. He was 87. Speaking with Daugherty over a half-century after his debut, the memories of his lone plate appearance were still crystal clear.

“It was in Chicago, it was cold, and it was snowing,” Daugherty said in a 2008 interview. “They sent me up to pinch hit against Billy Pierce. He was quite a pitcher, a really good pitcher. I fouled a couple off and missed the third one. That was the extent of my major league career.”

Doc Daugherty

He made the club out of spring training in 1951 after an injury to third baseman and future Hall of Famer George Kell created a need for depth in the infield. An Associated Press report on March 28, 1951 gave Rolfe’s scouting report on the newest member of the Tigers.

“Manger Red Rolfe said Daugherty is okay defensively, but is weak at the plate. He is being given a thorough trial now with Kell benched on account of a spike wound in his hand.”

Kell’s injury turned out to be less severe than expected and with Johnny Lipon firmly entrenched at shortstop; there was little room for Daugherty in the lineup. Right on the day rosters were set to be trimmed, the Tigers recalled knuckleball pitcher Marlin Stewart from Toledo, sending Daugherty to the minor leagues, effectively ending his major league career.

“I stayed with them for a month,” he said. “They took some of the rookies north with them and May 15th, was the cutoff date where they had to be down to a certain number. They sent the rookies out to the farm clubs. From there I went to Toledo.”

A World War II veteran, Daugherty served in the Army after playing football at Ohio State in 1945. After serving for a year-and-a-half, he signed with the Tigers before the start of the 1948 season. They brought him to major league spring training and the 20-year-old immediately turned heads.

“Look at him pick ‘em up out there,” manager Steve O’Neill said in a 1948 Owosso Argus-Press article. “He’s got ‘class’ written all over him.”

Unfortunately, Daugherty never lived up to those lofty expectations, as Rolfe proved to be correct in his assessment of his batting skills. He finished his minor league career in 1953 with a .230 lifetime average. After hanging up his cleats, Daugherty entered the coaching ranks, managing in the Tigers organization, as well as at the high school level in three different sports for over 30 years.

“When I quit playing my professional career I did some scouting for the Tigers and managed some teams in the rookie leagues,” he said. “I taught high school for 33 years coaching football, baseball, and basketball.”

His love for athletics was passed down to his children, with his son Mike forming a husband and wife coaching tandem, serving as the associate head women’s basketball coach at Washington State University with his wife June at the helm. Mike, who was an Ohio State alum, played professional basketball overseas.

“My oldest son and his wife have been coaching for 15 years,” he said. “They coach the women's basketball team at Washington State University in the Pac-10. They both played at Ohio State and both played overseas. She's the head coach and he's the assistant. They're doing quite well.”

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Bud Thomas went once around the bases for the St. Louis Browns in 1951

John “Bud” Thomas, a former infielder who played with the St. Louis Browns in 1951, passed away on Saturday in Sedalia, Missouri. He was 86.

The Browns first noticed Thomas in 1947 when he was the shortstop for the West squad in the 1945 Esquire All-American Game at the Polo Grounds that featured Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb as honorary managers. He signed with the club in 1947, and within four years he made the majors by climbing his way from the lowest rung of the minor leagues.

Bud Thomas

In his brief time with Bill Veeck’s team, Thomas hit .350 (7-for-20) while playing flawless defense at shortstop, handling 30 chances without an error. One of those seven precious hits was a home run against the Philadelphia Athletics at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. The memory of an unfortunate misplay in the field the inning prior hung a cloud over one of his shining major league moments.

“They gave the guy [Alex Kellner] a hit, but I made an error that let them score three runs,” Thomas said in a 2011 interview. “I replayed that in my mind forever. They scored and it put them ahead 3-4 runs.”

Despite his fielding gaffe, Thomas approached his next at-bat determined to jump on his preferred pitch, a high fastball.

“I come up and there’s nobody on base, and I hit a home run. I know where the pitch was because it was my favorite pitch, high around the letters. I usually hustle down to first base and I didn’t look to see it go out or anything like that. I’m running around and the defense wasn’t moving. I continued running and I think that ball went out of the ballpark. I keep running and nobody was saying anything and I round second base and I say, ‘God I hope to hell that’s a home run. It’s going to be embarrassing if I didn’t hit that out.’”

Thomas returned to the Browns dugout and nobody got up to congratulate him. Sixty years later, the memory of being ignored by his teammates after hitting his first (and only) home run in the major leagues put an even greater damper on what should have been a joyous event.

“I round third base, I get home, and I get on the bench,” he recalled. “I don’t mind saying this now, nobody on that team or the bench never said a thing about it. Nobody said a word. It really got me. That was the recollection. It wasn’t the silent treatment; I didn’t know what the hell it was. That’s [just] the way it was.”

After his standout performance in his short September trial, Thomas was sure that he would get a shot at making the Browns out of spring training in 1952. He later discovered that the cash strapped Browns were looking to make a quick financial play on Thomas’ brief success.

“I had such a great year in ’51,” he said. “I found out when I got there, they were running ballplayers in and out of there all year long to get something going. They figured if they could get someone up there and he showed promise, they could sell him. This is all hindsight. At the time, you don’t think that way. All that other stuff comes out later.”

The Browns sold Thomas’ contract to Toronto of the International League. A surprised Thomas found out not via communication with the team’s front office, but from The Sporting News.

“I’m standing in front of our house and my neighbor said, ‘I thought I you were going to take spring training with the Browns?’ he recalled. “I said, ‘I am.’ He said, ‘Not according to what I read.’ I said, ‘What did you read?’ He said, ‘The Sporting News said you were going to go to Toronto.’ I said, “Get me The Sporting News.’ Sure enough I was traded to Toronto.”

The man who once called future Hall of Famers Leon Day and Satchel Paige his teammates while playing with the Browns organization was out of professional baseball by 1953, only two years after his brief, but shining run in the major leagues. The superintendent of schools in his hometown of Sedalia asked him to come back and teach. He gladly obliged.

“I was primarily an administrator,” he said. “I came back and I was a teacher. I was the first student teacher that came out of the college (University of Central Missouri) that went to Sedalia. I became principal of an elementary school for five years, then I opened another elementary school. For my last 11 years, I was the assistant superintendent of schools.”

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Fritz Peterson revisits the Horace Clarke Era in his new book

Fritz Peterson spent almost nine seasons with the New York Yankees playing alongside the likes of Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and Whitey Ford. Surely playing with those legends would have guaranteed the lefty pitcher a shot of making the playoffs at least once in his career, right? Think again.

Playing with the Yankees from 1966-1974, Peterson endured one of the roughest stretches in Yankees history, as the bulk of his time included pairings with offensive juggernauts such Jerry Kenney, Gene Michael, and Horace Clarke. The latter served as the inspiration for the title of Peterson’s newest book, “When the Yankees Were on the Fritz: Revisiting the Horace Clarke Era.”

Peterson tells the good, the bad, and often the ugly about the myriad of teammates that went through the Yankees revolving doors of the late 60s and early 70s. The book is dotted with often hilarious nuggets about his Yankee brethren ranging from the aforementioned Hall of Famers to obscurities including Alan Closter, Bill Burbach, and Cecil Perkins. These inside baseball stories that he shares gives a glimpse into the hi-jinks that ballplayers often engage in without revealing the personal clubhouse matters that his former mound mate Jim Bouton exposed in “Ball Four.”

Fritz Peterson signing a copy of his new book / N. Diunte

Each chapter is set up neatly for each of the nine “innings,” that he played with the Yankees. His offseason tales of his job as an adjunct professor at his alma mater Northern Illinois University, his contract negotiations with the Yankees front office, and his foray into hockey broadcasting serve as digestible buffers in between his narratives about the hodgepodge collection of teammates that comprised the “Horace Clarke Era.”

Listen below to hear Peterson discussing his new book and the likes of teammates Thurman Munson and Mel Stottlemyre.

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Jerry Blevins left with a dubious record after suffering season-ending injury

Jerry Blevins set a record this season that he would surely relinquish if he had the opportunity to do so. Blevins suffered a broken left-arm when he was struck by a line drive in an April 19 game against the Miami Marlins. At the time of his injury, he set a major league record by retiring all 15 batters he faced for the season.

The left-handed reliever, who was acquired in a trade with the Washington Nationals in exchange for outfielder Matt den Dekker, was the Mets most effective relief pitcher in April. In seven appearances, Blevins had a spotless 0.00 ERA with four strikeouts in five innings pitched, winning his only decision of the season in a 7-5 victory over the Marlins on April 16.

Blevins hoped that he would have a chance to improve upon his record by returning to the Mets late in the season to help them in their playoff run; however, those dreams were dashed earlier this week when the Mets announced on Thursday that he re-injured his left arm, breaking the same bone he initially injured after slipping on a curb Monday.

In an effort to replace Blevins in the bullpen, the Mets acquired left-handed reliever Eric O’Flaherty from the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday. An upset Blevins vented on Twitter about his injury preventing him from contributing to the Mets playoff run. He sounded like he would gladly trade giving up some base hits and the record he currently set in order to have the opportunity to pitch again with the Mets this season.

“Can't explain my disappointment & frustration about not putting on a Mets uniform again this year,” Blevins tweeted on Thursday. “I'll be back stronger. Let's Go Mets.”

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The lowdown on Eric O'Flaherty, newest member of the New York Mets

The New York Mets bolstered their bullpen with the acquisition of left-handed relief pitcher Eric O’Flaherty and cash from the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday evening in exchange for a player to be named later. To make room for O’Flaherty on the roster, the Mets designated lefty reliever Alex Torres for assignment, who has been largely ineffective in neutralizing opponent’s left-handed hitters.

So who exactly is the 30-year-old pitcher that just followed his fellow Oakland teammate Tyler Clippard to New York?

Click here to read a complete background on the newest member of the New York Mets, who has played with the Atlanta Braves, Oakland Athletics, and the Seattle Mariners.

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Michael Conforto hits his first major league home run against the Marlins

Michael Conforto further solidified his place in the New York Mets lineup last night when he hit his first major league home run in the second inning off of Miami Marlins starter Tom Koehler. The 433-foot blast to right-center field put the Mets ahead 3-0, putting them well on their way to a 12-1 victory.

“I was just trying to find a good pitch to hit something hard,” Conforto said. “I got into a good count 3-1, got a good fastball out over the plate [and] put a good swing on it.”

Michael Conforto at MCU Park in 2014 / N. Diunte

Conforto hit Koehler’s 3-1 offering into the depth of Marlins Park with two runners on base and the pitcher Bartolo Colon waiting on deck. Many in the ballpark were expecting Koehler to pitch around him to get to the weak-hitting Colon after falling behind in the count; however, Conforto showed tremendous poise in being prepared to hit in that situation.

“I wouldn’t say I [was] surprised,” he said. “It was what I was looking for. I wanted to make sure that I got a good pitch to hit … in a spot where I could put us ahead and help the team out.”

With the Mets recent acquisition of Yoenis Cespedes, Conforto was slated to head to their Triple-A team in Las Vegas this weekend; however, when Kirk Nieuwenhuis suffered a neck injury, Mets manager Terry Collins kept him from boarding the plane. The move paid tremendous dividends against the Marlins.

“It was a good night for him to get him going,” Collins said. “He is going to be such a good hitter."

The 23-year-old outfielder has made meteoric rise to the majors since being selected in the first round of the 2014 draft. He spent the 2014 season with the Mets short season club in Brooklyn, and split time between two minor league teams this season, before being called to the majors last month from Double-A Binghamton with only 133 professional games under his belt.

With his major league career only a few weeks old, behind every turn of the corner is a new milestone for the future star of the Mets organization. As he floated around the bases after his first home run, Conforto not only put a foothold on his position with the team, but cemented an unforgettable moment in his promising journey.

“The whole trip around the bases was a flash in my mind,” he said. “So it's a moment I'll never forget. It's pretty cool."

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Ryan Doherty excelling as a beach volleyball pro after minor league baseball career

Walking around the beach volleyball courts at last weekend’s AVP New York City Open at Hudson River Park, seven-foot-one Ryan Doherty seemed like the most obvious choice for a volleyball player. Long and lean with a standing reach that easily extends way over the net, Doherty appears to the casual observer that he’s spent a lifetime developing his volleyball skills. Little would they know that Doherty is a relative newcomer to the sport who only started playing once the door was closed on a burgeoning professional baseball career.

Doherty grew up in Toms River, New Jersey where baseball was king. A standout high school pitcher, he was a two-sport athlete at Toms River East until his senior year when he gave up basketball to focus solely on baseball. His inspiration for the decision came from newly minted Hall of Famer, Randy Johnson.

“I started to fall in love with baseball right around the time Randy Johnson was making a name for himself with the Mariners,” Doherty said to ESPN in 2002. “I had a hero for life.”

Ryan Doherty / Yakima Bears

Doherty took his talents on a baseball scholarship to Notre Dame where he earned third-team All-American honors in 2004. Armed with a fastball in the low-90s and a release that put the ball seemingly on top hitters before it left his hand, Doherty was set on a path to the major leagues. He was so eager to get to the show that left Notre Dame before his senior year to sign as an undrafted free agent in 2005 with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“Those long arms and legs will eventually be a consistent advantage because when he's right, he's actually releasing the ball closer to 50 feet from the plate, rather than the 52 or 54 feet most pitchers are releasing the ball from,” one scout remarked.

From the moment he stepped on the mound, Doherty made history. As the tallest player in professional baseball, he was determined to show the baseball world that he was more than a footnote in the record books. In his second professional season in 2006 with the South Bend Silver Hawks, he posted a 9–1 record with a 2.59 ERA. Based on his outstanding performance, the Diamondbacks moved him up to their advanced Class-A team in Visalia, California to start the 2007 season.

Surrounded by a team filled with heralded prospects, Doherty surely was on the right track. He spent time with his pitching idol Johnson, who was in Visalia rehabbing his way back to the major leagues. He opened the season by pitching three scoreless innings. Heading out of the gate with what seemed to be a strong push, Doherty’s train suddenly came to a screeching halt. The Diamondbacks abruptly released him, saying they didn’t see him projecting as a major leaguer. Not a single major league organization reached out for his services. He finished the 2007 season with the independent River City Rascals of the Frontier League with his baseball career in the rearview mirror.

“I left the Diamondbacks organization and it wasn’t my choice; I was released,” Doherty said at the New York City AVP Open. “I basically was an ex-athlete all of a sudden. I wasn’t a baseball player and I was 24 years old.”

So how did Doherty, who never played beach volleyball in his life, start the transformation from a flame-throwing pitcher to stymieing his opponents in the sand?

“When I was living with a friend of mine [Steve Johnson] down in South Carolina, we just happened to find a beach volleyball court and I fell in love with the sport,” he said. “I played it as much as I possibly could. It was a new great competitive outlet for me. I decided that I wanted to play this every day as long as I can.”

Initially, Doherty struggled mightily, serving as easy fodder for all comers. Playing with Johnson on the beach, the two former baseball players were out of their league even against low-level amateurs on the sand.

"We were terrible," Johnson said to Scott Stump in 2013. "Here we have a former D-I athlete and a former pro athlete, and we're getting embarrassed by the worst players on the beach."

Not one to be deterred by his early failures with the sport, Doherty was bit by the volleyball bug. In 2009 with only $5,000 to his name, he packed up his car and headed out to California with aspirations of making the professional tour. He made ends meet by delivering pizzas on a bicycle, managing the little money he had similarly to when he played in the minor leagues, making a dollar stretch in a variety of ways.

“I was very good at being poor from years of practice,” he said. “I didn’t have any money, but I knew that if I was going to play beach volleyball, I wasn’t going to do it for the money; I was going to do it because it is a great life. It’s something that would keep me engaged and passionate.”

With a work ethic born out of enduring the daily grind of a baseball season, Doherty hit the beach daily early in the morning to build his skill set. Once in awhile, he would get invited to play in high level games while working out at the beach because players didn’t show up. Despite his height (which earned him the nickname “Avatar”) being a tremendous asset in volleyball at the net, the many finesse areas of his game were lacking and easily exposed.

“It was definitely all of the skill aspects [that were hard to learn],” Doherty said. “Being seven feet tall, the height was easy — hitting, blocking, the serving. The things that were difficult were passing the ball, controlling sets, things like that. Those are the things that I have to work on much more than the others. Thankfully, I’ve had a lot of people willing to help me out and give me good advice, tips, and tricks. After a lot of practice reps, I’m able to say that I can now compete with most of the guys on those skill aspects. I’m not going to be the best ball control guy on the beach, but I’ve gotten much better and I still think I can improve in those areas.”

Two players who were instrumental in helping Doherty advance quickly in the sport were Olympic Gold Medalist Todd Rogers, and tour veteran Casey Patterson. Patterson took Doherty under his wing in 2012, and together they made the volleyball world take notice when the pair upset Rogers and Phil Dalhausser in the finals of the National Volleyball League tournament in Baltimore.

Rogers shortly parted ways with Dalhausser and picked up Doherty as his partner for the 2013 season. Rogers, whom Doherty compared to Cal Ripken Jr. with his skill, knowledge, and longevity, mentored him with the hopes of tuning up his game the same way he did with his former Olympic partner Dalhausser.

“Phil and I had gone our separate ways after the 2012 season, and I needed a new big guy,” Rogers said to Stump in 2013. “Ryan was the biggest on the block. I also wanted to work with a guy that needed to be taught, as I enjoy the coaching aspect of the game. I had taught Phil everything I knew, and I missed coaching. Ryan was a perfect fit for me.”

As Doherty progressed in his new sport, he carried the bulldog mentality that he had on the mound to the sand, when he would force feed hitters a steady diet 90-mile-per-hour fastballs and sloping curve balls until they showed they could make an adjustment. On the court he has applied that mantra to his offensive approach.

“One of my smartest baseball coaches said, 'Don’t change anything until they show you they can beat it.’ That’s what I took into volleyball,” Doherty said. “If I am swinging to the high deep middle of the court and that ball goes down, I’m going to keep swinging there until somebody does something to where it doesn’t work. I’ve had matches where I’ve swung to the same spot 15 times and that was the only spot I hit, but they didn’t defend it, so I’ll take it. That’s a smart thing for younger players, develop one thing so that they have to make an adjustment, and then you can go to your next. Don’t try to play a chess match if you can just play checkers.”

Ryan Doherty at the 2015 AVP Open / N. Diunte

Sitting in the player’s tent in between matches, Doherty reflected on the opportunity to be able to play in front of his family and friends, with only 70 miles separating them from the venue. He hopes that the tour makes Manhattan a permanent stop due to its incredible atmosphere.

“The East Coast tournament is always my favorite one of the year just because my friends and family get a chance to come out,” he said. “Now that I live in California, I don’t get to see them nearly as much as I like. This New York City tournament has been fantastic so far; it’s one of the coolest backdrops to a beach volleyball tournament you’ve ever going to see. I’m really hoping that this one sticks around for awhile so that we can stay here many more years.”

Doherty and his partner John Mayer finished in second place in the NYC AVP Open, losing a highly contested match in the finals to the team of his former partner Patterson and Olympian Jake Gibb in three sets, 21–19, 15–21, 12–15. Their excellent showing only furthers the argument that Doherty and Mayer’s team are in contention for a spot in the 2016 Olympics. While Doherty feels that is a lofty goal due to the short time that they have played together, he’s not going to rule out the possibility of it happening.

“The 2016 Olympics are going to be very tough,” he said. “Johnny Mayer and I are in the 5th spot for the US and only two teams can go. … We just want to play and develop as a team. He’s a fantastic player. It’s our first year together; I think us trying to set an Olympics goal was a little out of reach considering how good all of the American teams are. Never say never, but we’re both going to be young enough that 2020 is not out of the picture.”

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